Band Profile

Resonance Jazz Ensemble performs inspired originals by bandleader Steve McQuarry, as well as deliciously creative arrangements of jazz standards, pop tunes and classical favorites with woodwinds, strings and a rhythm section that includes piano, double-bass and drums.

Resonance is a unique collaboration of jazz and classical musicians, and is the only jazz ensemble in Northern California with this unusual instrumentation. Resonance captivates audiences with its singular, lush sound punctuated by driving rhythms and improvised solos.

Resonance Jazz brings together artists of richly diverse musical backgrounds. Members of the octet have performed with many legendary artists, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Bellson, Clare Fischer, Dave Anderson Quartet, Terrence Brewer, Joe Lovano, Jethro Tull, Oakland Jazz Choir, Mingus Amungus, Gloria Estefan, as well as the Marin and Berkeley Symphonies, Woodminster Theatre Orchestra, and the California Pops Orchestra.

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Where chamber meets large band and cool runs into swing . . . sophisticated without being stiff.

– Midwest Record

Performances

Resonance has performed at these venues in 2010-2013

Yoshi’s Jazz Club, Oakland, CA

Jazz School, Berkeley, CA

First Church Jazz Concerts, San Francisco, CA

Rhythmix Cultural Center, Alameda, CA

Piedmont Arts Center, Oakland, CA

Avonova, Oakland, CA

Musically Minded Academy, Oakland, CA

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Marvelous debut of a musical format sure to resonate throughout the jazz landscape.

–Jim Wilke’s Jazz After Hours

Our Members

Nancy Bien | Cello

Nancy Bien – Cello

Nancy is a bona fide California native: born in Hollywood, grew up in the central valley, and moved to the Bay Area as a teenager. She began taking piano lessons when she was six years old, was handed a cello three years later, and never looked back. After getting both a BA and MA in music (performance), she played and taught on the east coast for a few years, but longed to return to the Pacific coast.

￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼In an intensely impulsive minute one summer, she quit her full time symphony job so she could be free to move back to San Francisco. Poorer, but much happier, she quickly became an active freelancer throughout the greater Bay Area. Today she is the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Marin Symphony, first call cellist for the West Edge Opera (formerly Berkeley Opera), a member of the Berkeley Symphony, and performs with many other ensembles all over the Bay Area, including Resonance!

When Nancy puts the cello down, she directs her creative energy towards painting. If you have a chance to see some of her vibrant, expressive figure paintings you might be reminded of her cello playing. At home, she loves being able to spend time with her three nearly-adult children. They live together in a creaky old house that’s full of music and paintings, good food and strong coffee.

Ted Burik | Double Bass

Ted Burik – Bass

Ted grew up back east and moved to the West Coast 25 years ago. Hase performed jazz, blues, and classical music for over 30 years in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area. To best capture the deep sonic possibilities found in the bass, he focuses on performing modern and traditional jazz on both upright bass and electric fretted and fretless basses.

While in New York, he studied and performed with Rick Petrone, bassist with Maynard Ferguson’s big band, and has studied with Naim Satya in the Bay Area. In Seattle’s thriving jazz scene, he performed extensively with the Dave Anderson Quartet (Pony Boy Records), the Gilbert Garcia Group, and Black Lab Music.

Today, Ted is quite busy playing jazz in the Bay Area, performing regularly with Resonance and Milestones. He is also a founding member of Jumping the Shark, an original blues rock ensemble that is currently recording its first album. Someday he’d like to have his very own home recording studio, and we’re all hoping he’ll invite us over to jam.

Greg German | Drums

Greg German – Drums

Greg grew up in Hawaii and discovered the drums at the unlikely age of 23 when he suddenly found himself drumming in a rock band on a dare. He had previously played tenor sax, guitar, piano and marimba, but knew that he had found his home when he started drumming. His newfound instrument and his burgeoning love of jazz combined to launch him on a journey of discovery that continues to this day. He credits most of what he knows to just listening to the jazz masters: Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Jack DeJohnette and Art Blakey to name
a few. He has also studied with Eddie Marshall, Pete Magadini and Alan Hall.

Greg has worked with various performers and groups such as Benny Rietveld (Miles Davis, Santana), Walter Savage, Oakland Jazz Choir, Ben Stolorow, Mingus Amungus, Terrence Brewer, the Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band and the San Francisco Experimental Ensemble. Greg can currently be heard performing with Bay Area artists such as Dave Ellis, Marcos Silva, Muziki Roberson, Mark Wright, Stephanie Crawford, Humanistic, Melvin and the Mellotones, Mary D’Orazi and The Grassroots Composers’ Workshop.

When Greg isn’t gracing some lucky ensemble with his flowing sense of time you might find him searching in towns far and wide for little stone animals to add to his growing collection.

Georgianna Krieger | Soprano, Alto and Baritone Saxophones

Georgianna Krieger – Saxophones

In the fabled jazz town of Denton Texas, Georgianna began playing saxophone at age 9 and just kept playing. Influenced by college radio, Gerry Mulligan and a North Texas State University philosophy professor, Georgianna sees a connection between jazz improvisation and drawing but is unlikely to ever bring it up. While studying figurative sculpture, she earned a bachelors degree in Jazz and Commercial Music at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
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Today, Georgianna teaches saxophone, plays with Resonance Jazz Ensemble and is a professional visual artist. Her small works in glass are available on the Etsy website.

When she’s not playing saxophone, sculpting or parenting, Georgianna dreams of summer and loose leaf tea.

Michelle Mastin | Viola

Michelle Mastin – Viola

Michelle grew up in Ohio and holds her BM from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati and a Masters from the Eastman School of Music in New York. She has also received the Professional Studies Diploma from the San Francisco Conservatory as a student of Jodi Levitz.

Michelle has been an active performer on both violin and viola working with orchestras such as the Rochester Philharmonic, the Erie Philharmonic, the Kentucky Symphony, and the Santa Cruz Symphony. She also enjoys chamber music and spent two years working with the Eastman Chamber Society, as well as two years as a fellow and coach for the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra.

Today, Michelle is active with the Altair Trio, Resonance, and the California Pops Orchestra. In her spare time, wait, nope, she just had a baby, no spare time!

Stephen McQuarry | Piano / Leader / Composer

Steve McQuarry – Piano, Composer, Leader

Stephen grew up in a home filled with his Mom’s piano playing in Denver Colorado. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, University of Colorado at Denver, Berklee School of Music, University of California San Diego and Alexander University. He is an active member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), the performance rights organization, Broadcast Musicians, Inc. (BMI), the Electronic Music Foundation (EMF), the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (ASMAC), the Society For Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) and Chamber Music America (CMA).
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Stephen has performed with distinguished artists such as the late Dizzy Gillespie, Clare Fischer, Louie Bellson, Red Rodney (Charlie
Parker), Tom Scott, the late John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Vinnie Colaiuta (Sting, Herbie Hancock, Frank Zappa), Nathan East (Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock, Bob James), Bill Rich (Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles, Taj Mahal) and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

Today, Stephen is composing and recording on his indie label, Mandala Records and working on orchestration projects in the film community, but someday you might find him on a pink sand beach with Sherre eating a conch salad.

Michèle Walther | Violin

Michèle Walther – Violin

Michèle is a native of Basel, Switzerland. She performs in symphony orchestras and small classical, jazz, world music and tango groups. She has performed with Ian Anderson /Jethro Tull, Joe Lovano, Mark Feldman, Gloria Estefan, John Cage, Mathias Ruegg (Vienna Art Orchestra), The Boston String Quartet, LaMuseMent and many others. For many years she was a member of the Basel
Sinfonietta in Switzerland, a symphony orchestra dedicated to performing music of the 20th century.

Ms. Walther received her MM at the Basel Conservatory in Switzerland, majoring in violin performance and education. Later, she graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston with a major in jazz violin. Currently she performs with Tangonero, Resonance, her project for solo violin with looper, and others. She has recorded several CDs, and she is a faculty member at the New Mozart School of Music in Palo Alto.

On her day off you could track her down on the beautiful California coast watching for dolphins with her husband.

Laura Austin Wiley | Piccolo, C-Flute, Alto Flute, Vocals

Laura Austin Wiley – Flutes and Vocals

Laura grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, where she took flute and voice lessons from faculty members of the Indiana University School of Music. While an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York, she participated in musical theater productions both as a singer / actress and as a flutist in the pit orchestra. After graduation, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she pursued graduate musical and literature studies at Holy Names University.
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Today, in addition to performing with Resonance, she plays flute and sings with the Laura Wiley Quartet. Laura has recorded four musical CDs, and one audio CD of her one-woman show Panic! which she wrote and performed at the San Francisco Fringe Festival. She has never held a driver’s license, and is now working on a one-woman show called Driven Bananas, about having a driving phobia.

When Laura isn’t singing, playing her flute or working on one-woman shows, she is probably writing or drawing. Her music website is at www.lauraaustinwiley.com, and you can buy her latest CD at CD Baby.

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A fusion of orchestral swirls, big band raptures, and improvised cuts.

–Yahoo Review

MANDALA / RESONANCE / Introductions: What was once a duo is now a big band that knows how to find the varied grooviness in Beatles, Holst, Ellington and Miles all at once. Where Chamber meets large band and cool runs into swing, this is where it all comes together for this crew. A solid bet for anyone looking for listening jazz / contemporary instrumental music, don’t go mistaking this for dinner music because it’s so much more. And it’s sophisticated without being stiff. Check it out.

Introductions is the work of accomplished multi-instrumentalists able to spring musical astonishments at will; offering a prismatic panorama of musical colors; dispensing it seems, with the concept of the musical palette, but intent on bagging an entire rainbow, while preserving melody, harmony, and impeccable form with broad versatility devoid of weightiness, aridness, or overplaying.

. . . radiant emotional character . . . adaptable group of superlative musicians whose voicings extend the repertoire of jazz by unraveling a conspicuous spectrum of colors that resound with boldness, excitement, and originality.

Resonance collectively pushes the ‘jazz envelope’ with an intrepidness that forces open uncharted space for thrilling musical exploration.

“Eleanor Rigby” reintroduced by Resonance is no longer weary, or eccentric, if anything, she has aged well, and is quite a bit smoother around her edges and contours. She shows the kind sophistication, and sensuous maturity that Stephen’s McQuarry’s piano can’t help but notice, leaving it to baritone saxophonist Georgianna Kreiger to reprise the aching lament of “all the lonely people” that forever represents the signature emotion in the song’s melody.

. . . delightful eccentricities in every cut of this disc, a potpourri that must be listened deeply to in order to really appreciate the neverending hybridizations . . .

Holst’s Jupiter and you’ve never heard the song done this way, trust me, as though George Winston and Phil Aaberg had penned it while listening to Copland and Satie.

Resonance’s take [on Eleanor Rigby] is nearly patrician, but with many jazz transfigurations keeping things from dying of Upper Class decorousness. I think John Lennon would’ve choked with laughter at the dominant inflection while admiring the clever interleavings escorting the song around the block, through the back alley, and then back into Buckingham Palace.